REVIEW: ‘Dandelion’s Odyssey’ Is a Charming Ode to Nature in All Its Forms

How beautiful nature is, and how wonderful the medium of animation is, allowing us to experience and feel a film such as Momoko Seto’s Dandelion’s Odyssey, a sensory environmental experience, and an ode to the beauty of all living things, regardless of size, and their ability to adapt.

After Earth is destroyed in a nuclear attack, four surviving dandelion seeds are launched into the atmosphere and end up on a mysterious planet where, together, they try to find a new home. There is no dialogue or complicated storyline, just four achenes traversing and surviving one spectacular environment after another in search of fertile soil in which to reproduce.

The obstacles that threaten the little seeds throughout their intergalactic trip are a mirror of what nature and its living beings must endure on our planet: noise pollution, melting ice, toxic gases, contaminated water, indiscriminate urban construction (here represented by giant mushrooms that never stop growing), among other human infamies.

The drama of the film arises precisely from these potentially lethal encounters for our protagonists, yet even amid the persistent danger and moments of bleakness, Seto often maintains a positive and charming tone that helps her deliver an environmentalist message without coming across as preachy.

Dandelion’s Odyssey needs no words to convey a million of them.

Teamwork is key to the survival of our protagonists. Dandelion’s Odyssey captures the extraordinary interconnectedness of nature by illustrating how flora and fauna work in concert to thrive. The prosperous flourishing of an ecosystem lies in the quiet collaboration that binds all life together. Despite a structure that sometimes feels episodic, the movie avoids repetition by developing these ideas progressively through each encounter.

I would never have imagined that I could develop a deep empathy for four dandelion seeds, but here we are. Director Momoko Seto does a nice job of imbuing each seed with personality and unique little details, making them endearing to the audience. One, for example, has only four bristles and is therefore the most fearful; he constantly has to be rescued by his friends.

The digital models don’t always look polished, which can be jarring at first, especially given the aesthetic level we’re used to in 3D animated movies, but Dandelion’s Odyssey is not interested in photorealism but in the emotions that the characters and their relationship with the environment can cause. In that sense, the creative animation is more than successful: small movements of the bristles are used in an ingenious way to convey emotions such as fear, sadness, and joy.

Dandelion’s Odyssey isn’t just moving, it’s beautiful.

This is also where the great sound design comes in, as the seeds and other animal characters they encounter on their journey emit simple but quite effective sounds to reinforce these emotions; the excellent and chameleonic score by Quentin Sirjacq and Nicolas Becker further enhances these feelings, adding depth and nuance to every moment.

To complement the visuals, there is a tremendous variety of scenarios—colorful, beautiful, and surreal enough to inspire a sense of awe throughout the movie. However, these ever-changing environments are not only used as eye candy and to set up new obstacles for the titular achenes. They are a reflection of the beauty of life and its many stunning manifestations: from hundreds of plants sprouting to create a multicolored ecological haven to a pond housing hundreds of frog eggs.

A couple of days before watching Dandelion’s Odyssey, I found myself entranced, admiring a minuscule worm crawling on the grass—just doing its thing, unbothered, living. How cool is it that this tiny living being exists? We often focus on the grand aspects of life, but if you pause for a moment, these small details of nature are miracles in themselves. Life, in all its forms—from the tiniest worm to the mightiest bear—is a miracle unfolding and adapting before us every day, a testament to the beauty and resilience of existence. That’s what Dandelion’s Odyssey so beautifully reminds us.

Dandelion’s Odyssey was the closing film of the Critics Week section of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.